I thought this week I would talk a little bit about effective copywriting.

So first some basics.

What exactly is copywriting? Well basically it’s just the words that you have on your site that help you ‘sell’ your product. Everyone has some level of copywriting on their site, whether they know it or not.

When copywriting is done well, it’s an absolute pleasure to read and I get a real kick out of it. When it’s done poorly it’s worse than walking in on your parents. Anyway I digress.
So how exactly can you improve your website’s copy? Well the first tip is to always remember – it’s not about you.

Your website does not exist so you can brag about your accomplishments, or mention how great you are or even that you won an industry specific award… your website exists for your customers. Plain and simple.

Your customers don’t really care too much about what you do or even how you do it, all they really care about at the end of the day is how your business will benefit them and solve their problem. So my first tip is make sure that the benefits of your business are front and centre on your website.

My second tip is to please remember to keep the benefits and features of your business distinct.

What do I mean by this? Well a feature of your business is not the same as benefit of your business and vice a versa.

I will give you the most simple example I can. If I was trying to sell you a pen, I wouldn’t talk about the features of the pen. I would not say that it has black ink, is about 10 centimeters long and weighs 200 grams. Talking about features is never sexy and doesn’t really make me want to buy anything.

Instead I would talk about the benefits of using the pen. For example, I would talk about how great the pen feels in the palm of your hand. I would mention that the pen allows you to write upside down so that when you’re lying in bed you can write down all your great ideas. I would mention how effortlessly the pen glides across the page so it’s easier to continuously write and avoid writers block.

Writing about the benefits is much more seductive and engaging, but it’s just that little bit harder to do. So I think this is why you will find a lot of websites talk about themselves and the fact they have “ been in business 25 years”, as opposed to the benefits, e.g “this is how we can help you”.

If you are interested in learning more about great copywriting, type in John Cartlon into google and visit his site. He is the god father of copywriting and I am sure you can learn a lot just from reading his stuff.

Below is a great little example of some funny and engaging copywriting I like as well. Notice they talk about the benefit of buying the flowers (make her friends jealous) and not the fact that there are 12 flowers in each vase (a feature).